This web page was produced as an assignment for Genetics 677, an undergraduate course at UW-Madison.
Gene Ontology
Gene Ontology (GO) is a widely-used systematic approach for characterizing genes and their products. GO covers three aspects of a gene: its biological processes, cellular components, and molecular functions. The Universal Protein Resource (Uniprot) is a great database for determining the GO of a gene of interest. The Uniprot accession number for parkin is O60260. According to Uniprot, the biological processes that are associated with parkin include the following:
-aggresome assembly
-central nervous system development
-negative regulation of cell death
-negative regulation of protein amino acid phosphorylation
-protein autoubiquitination
-protein polyubiquitination
The cellular components of the protein include:
-golgi apparatus
-aggresome
-cytosol
-nucleus
Its molecular functions are:
-PDZ domain binding
-chaperone binding
-kinase binding
-ubiquitin
-protein ligase activity
Analysis
The GO terms associated with parkin match the known activities of the protein. Specifically, the biological processes that are given for parkin are mostly associated with ubiquitination, which goes with the protein's ubiquitin ligase activity. However, the GO cellular components of parkin fail to mention mitochondria, where parkin induces autophagy of the organelle during a stress response. The GO molecular functions of the protein also highlight the importance of parkin's RING finger domain in binding to substrates.
-aggresome assembly
-central nervous system development
-negative regulation of cell death
-negative regulation of protein amino acid phosphorylation
-protein autoubiquitination
-protein polyubiquitination
The cellular components of the protein include:
-golgi apparatus
-aggresome
-cytosol
-nucleus
Its molecular functions are:
-PDZ domain binding
-chaperone binding
-kinase binding
-ubiquitin
-protein ligase activity
Analysis
The GO terms associated with parkin match the known activities of the protein. Specifically, the biological processes that are given for parkin are mostly associated with ubiquitination, which goes with the protein's ubiquitin ligase activity. However, the GO cellular components of parkin fail to mention mitochondria, where parkin induces autophagy of the organelle during a stress response. The GO molecular functions of the protein also highlight the importance of parkin's RING finger domain in binding to substrates.
References
1. Uniprot. http://www.uniprot.org/
